"Still can't believe I can control fire," Firen said as he walked into school. True, his name might be related to fire, but until last night, it had been for his impatient attitude and the way he looked, with red stripes in his hair that looked like fire. He hadn't expected any of it. An old man named Gias had arrived on his doorstep, telling him and his parents about an ancient evil starting to awaken and that Firen, and six other kids at his school, had the power to beat them. They hadn't believed, until a small flame appeared on Firen's chest. His parents had rushed to get water, until Gias had explained that the flame was created by Firen's powers. "It is a soul flame, and its glow strengthens as your spirit does. So do you still deny you have these powers?" was what Gias had said. As he walked through the doors, his mood seemed to change a little, usually because he knew someone would annoy him a lot, and it usually happened. He looked around, looking for any signs of the other six Gias had mentioned. He could hear faint whispers in his head. It was a start, for when one of the other six were near, he could hear a sound to do with the element they controlled in his head. The other elements were lightning, water, earth, air, shadows and fear. "How anyone can use fear as an element I'll never know," Firen thought to himself, then stopped dead as something seemed to scream in his head.

He looked around, looking for where the source was. As he looked at one girl in particular, the scream seemed to grow louder. The source of Firen's new headache was a girl in his year. She had hair that had a red tint to it, and despite the fact they never met, Firen always saw her every day. Her name was April, and as Firen walked away, he thought "Ok, I just had to ask, didn't I." He brought a hidden throat microphone near his mouth, speaking to his father and Gias. "I think I might have found one of the remaining six, and almost got a headache because of it," he said, listening to Gias speak through his earpiece. "Let me guess, they can control fear?" Gias asked, chuckling to himself. "Very funny old man, but how can I show who it is? Not like I can ask April to just come over to our house so we can explain. If you even considered that idea, just remember I have this funny feeling she hates me," Firen said, hearing his dad grab the mike. Is it the same April whose mother I work with?" he asked, a confident tone in his voice. "I think so......but I don't like where you're going with this!" Firen almost shouted, his spine shivering. "You're right behind me, aren't you?" he said, quickly glancing over his shoulder. "I am so dead!" a voice in his head screamed. "Depends on who you think is behind you," a voice behind him said. He practically jumped. The voice was dark, almost little more than a whisper.

He turned round, seeing a girl with pale, almost white skin, night black hair that reached down her back and violet hue eyes. Her name was Miranda, and she was the last person anyone would want to sneak up on them. She always had something about her that gave people the creeps, and had a dark sense of humour. Firen hesitated, then said nervously "Sorry, I just thought you were April for a second." He watched as Miranda walked away, staring at him in a way that made his body run cold. The funny thing was, the entire time Miranda was there, he had heard a low, dark moan in his head. Through his earpiece, he could hear Gias and his dad chuckling. "Glad you thought it was funny. Hey Gias, what element would a low, dark moan represent?" he asked, still hearing them chuckling a little. "The element of shadows is represented by that? At least you've found the two darkest elements, now finding water, lightning, earth and air should be easy. There are definitive personality traits that should help you with that. Air should be easy enough, since air is mostly unpredictable, look for someone with similar traits. Next, water will be calm, cool and collected, so find someone with those traits. Lightning has a level headed sense to it, so anyone who isn't overactive would fit that. And earth has a calm, focused nature, so look for someone with a focused mind. And they should be around the same age as you, so keep that in mind, and trust your instincts," Gias said before cutting the connection.

As Firen looked around, he felt his soul flame getting brighter. "Now what?" he said to himself, looking around as a voice in his head said "A helper......" and started pointing to April. "Oh no, no way she'll believe me if I tell her, no chance!" he almost shouted to himself. He felt something on his hand, looking down to see a strange symbol etch itself on the back of his pale skinned hand. It looked like a sun, red in its colour. "Why now?" he said, then watched as the soul flame pointed in April's direction. He watched as a similar symbol, a blood red dragon head, appeared on her hand. "Fine, but I hope I don't regret this," he said as he walked over. He was about to speak when he saw her bring out a mobile. He relaxed, ready to walk away, when April said "Hey Firen, just to let you know, your dad called my mom, saying I need to stay over at your house tonight," and walked away. "Gias........what did you and my dad do," Firen said through gritted teeth. "I didn't do anything; it was all your father's idea. But here's a good idea, try telling her why," Gias said, making Firen almost jump into the air. "Are you kidding?! Like she'd believe me! What were you thinking?!" Firen practically shouted, making almost everyone stare at him. "When I said tell her why, I meant use your powers to get into her mind and deliver the message," Giassaid, cutting the connection again.

"I can't even say a single word near her, now he expects me to get inside her head. Better than talking to her in person I guess," Firen said, focusing his powers. The soul flame burned brighter as he concentrated his powers into what he wanted to do. He closed his eyes, opening them again to reveal a fire dancing in his eyes. Though no-one could see it, the soul flame left Firen's chest and became a small orb of flames. It moved towards April, flying past people's heads without anyone noticing it. As April looked towards it, her eyes widened as it hit her, flying into her mind. No-one had seen the orb, but they could see April collapse. Out in the hall, Firen had also collapsed.

As they lay in the sick bay, the nurse left them alone after checking them over, seeing no obvious cause of collapse. "Why people have tattoos I'll never know," she said as she left the room. Firen was wearing a black short sleeved shirt, while April was wearing a dark blue shirt, which made the symbols and the red and blood red stripes on their arms very noticeable. As she lay there, April woke up, seeing all her thoughts and memories. She was aware of something else there, seeing an orb of flames come towards her. As it stopped in front of her, a figure became noticeable in the fire. "How is that even possible?" she said as the figure became clear as Firen. "What the heck are you doing here......unless I'm just imagining things," she said. "Trust me, it wasn't like I had a choice," he said, watching as one of April's "thoughts or memories" flew in front of him. "I really don't want to know what that thought was," he said, watching as April looked at him in confusion, and anger. "You have ten seconds to tell me what you want before you find out what I'm thinking of doing right now," she said, a blood red energy starting to surround her. "What if I told you, you had a power over an element," Firen said, stepping back as the aura of energy around her grew bigger. "What makes you think I have a power at all?" April said, still surrounded by energy. "I think you're proving my point," Firen said nervously, pointing at the aura of energy.

April looked at the aura, seeing the blood red energy seeming to circulate around her. "So.....how do I know this isn't just a trick of my mind?" she said, the energy starting to fade. "Simple, when you wake up, just see if you have a symbol of a dragon head on your hand and a blood red stripe on your arm. If so, then that'll probably prove it," Firen said before he started to fade into the flame. The moment Firen disappeared from view; April woke up suddenly, looking around the sick bay. She looked down at her arm, seeing the stripe and dragon head symbol Firen had talked about. "Now do you believe me?" Firen said, only just waking up. As April looked up, the nurse came back into the room, seeing the two of them awake. "Good to see you're both awake. You do know it's almost lunch time," she said, walking back to her desk. April and Firen got down from the beds, heading for the canteen. "You really have some explaining to do tonight," April said, making Firen stop. "I would gladly explain the whole story to you right now, but I think we should search for the others," he said, about to walk away until April grabbed him by the shoulder. "What do you mean "search for the others"? You mean there are others with powers like us?" she asked. "At least they're in the same building as us, and I already know who one of them is," Firen said, a confident look on his face.

"So who is it, and how do we find the others?" April asked, rubbing her head as if she had a headache. "The one I know of is Miranda, who has a power over shadows. We can find the others by listening for a sound related to their element. We just need to find the ones who control water, air, earth and lightning. And now to go to lunch......" Firen said, constant noises going off in his head. He looked around, seeing only four people walk past. They were Jack, a boy with dark brown hair and a normally level-headed personally, Laura, a girl with shoulder length brown hair and a slightly hyper persona, Stephen, a boy with short, fair hair and a cool, focused type of personality, and then there was Shannon, a girl with hair that had a slight purple/plum tint and a calm, relaxed personality. As they walked past, a strong wind, a rushing river, a loud crackle of electricity and a large sonic blast sounded in April and Firen's head. To add to it, a low, dark shadow moan sounded among the other noises as Miranda walked past. April went to the canteen with her friends, while Firen followed close behind.

"So....we all have powers over an element, and we have to fight strange creatures that come out at night?" Jack asked. While they was in the canteen, April and Firen had tried to bring them together in each other's minds. So far, they'd been able to contact Laura, Jack and Stephen. For some reason, they couldn't get through to Miranda and Shannon. The two of them had explained everything, with Firen showing them the memories of what Gias had told him. They'd been able to prove it by pointing out the auras of energy that surrounded them and the symbols on their hands. Jack had a yellow forked lightning symbol; Laura had light green lines that spiralled at the ends near her fingers and Stephen had a dark green circle with a square hole in the middle surrounded by a smaller circle. It was easier to convince them about all that was happening, but getting to Shannon and Miranda wouldn't be easy now. It was as if there was a barricade blocking them. As they looked behind them, they could see a wall of darkness, and on the other side, Miranda and Shannon. As they looked at it, Firen and April's auras burned brighter. The two of them dashed towards the wall, trying to break it down. As they bounced off the walls again and again, a voice rang out, shouting "Stop! You have no idea what you're doing!" The voice was Gias, and his shouting made the wall disappear. "In trying to break down the wall you've tainted your own powers and beings with darkness, and we don't know what that means as it's never happened before," Gias shouted. "I guess that means we need to get them to meet us at Firen's house tonight. Hopefully, we'll be able to break these barriers," April said before everyone faded into their energy auras.